NEW YORK, June 18 (Xinhua) -- Amazon.com Inc.'s Zoox autonomous driving unit opened a robotaxi production facility in the U.S. state of California in the latest move by a deep-pocketed tech company to expand the nascent industry.
The site in the San Francisco Bay area city of Hayward will be able to churn out 10,000 purpose-built robotaxis a year once it reaches full scale, Zoox said in a statement on Wednesday. The company expects the plant will create hundreds of jobs in the region as it grows.
"Zoox is one of several companies vying to secure a foothold in the market for autonomous ridehailing," reported Bloomberg News. Competitors include Alphabet Inc.'s Waymo unit and Tesla Inc., which plans to begin offering rides in Austin with no driver behind the wheel as early as Sunday.
The Amazon-owned company's purpose-built robotaxi is akin to a shuttle and has no steering wheel or pedals, with four inward-facing seats. Zoox would need an exemption from U.S. auto safety rules that require vehicles to have driver controls, though the Trump administration has said it's working on changes to provide those approvals faster. Enditem
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